Multi-turn potentiometers and infinite turn potentiometers are used with trolling motors to enable a position of a steering shaft of the trolling motor to be determined. Multi-turn potentiometers have a large measurement range that provide resistance values for multiple turns of a shaft (e.g., 720 degrees, 960 degrees, etc.). However, multi-turn potentiometers include hard stops at the end of their range. Thus, if the encoder and/or potentiometer is rotated beyond the hard stop, the encoder can be damaged. In contrast, infinite turn potentiometers do not include hard stops, but typically exhibit a dead zone (e.g., 300 to 360 degrees) within which the potentiometer is unable to measure a position of the steering shaft.